Lithium batteries are energy storage and production devices capable of being charged and discharged. Such batteries are widely used as autonomous power sources for various portable electronic devices (e.g., cellular phones, cameras, audio players, laptop computers, and the like). The development of batteries that are lightweight and have higher charge/discharge capacity is an important issue for autonomous energetics.
A typical lithium battery includes a cathode, an electrolyte and an anode. The charge/discharge characteristics of cathode materials are important factors in determining the capacity for energy storage. Crystalline oxides based on cobalt, manganese, nickel and vanadium are the most studied materials for the cathode materials in lithium batteries. Commercialized LiCoO2 has high redox potential along with long term stability. However, such materials tend to be costly and toxic while also having a low charge/discharge capacity. LiMn2O4 has been considered as an alternative to conventional LiCoO2 because of its sufficiently high redox potential and associated low cost. However, this material also suffers from a low charge/discharge capacity and long term stability at cycling. Although LiNiO2 is another potential cathode material because of its theoretically better discharge capacity than LiCoO2, this material presents significant difficulty with respect to its preparation. For the case of V2O5, there is a disadvantage with respect to the stability of the material at charge/discharge cycling. Therefore, there is an urgent demand in creation of a new electrode material to overcome the shortcomings of the known crystalline transition metal oxides.
Recent trends in the field of portable electrical devices have focused on reducing power consumption, which requires creation of a current source with a relatively low working voltage and a high energy density. To meet this end, a battery with high charge/discharge capacity is required.
Improved discharge capacity for electrochemical lithium insertion has been observed for the two-component hybrid host-guest nanocomposites based on vanadium oxide (V2O5) and conducting polymers (CPs): nanocomposites of V2O5 with intercalated polyaniline (PAn), which were disclosed by Nazar et al. [E. Leroux, G. Goward, W. P. Power and L. F. Nazar, “Electrochemical Li Insertion into Conductive Polymer/V2O5 Nanocomposites”, Journal of Materials Chemistry, 1995, vol. 5, p. 1985], Gómez-Romero et al. [M. Lira-Cantú and P. Gómez-Romero, “The Organic-Inorganic Polyaniline/V2O5System. Application as a High-Capacity Hybrid Cathode for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries”, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 1999, vol. 146, p. 2029], Buttry et al. [F. Huguenin, R. M. Torresi and D. A. Buttry, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 2002, vol. 149, p.A546]; nanocomposites of V2O5 with intercalated polypyrrole (PPy) and polythiophene (PTh), which were disclosed by Nazar et al. [G. Goward, E. Leroux, and L. F. Nazar, “Poly(pyrrole) and Poly(thiophene)/Vanadium Oxide nanocomposites: Positive Electrodes for Lithium Batteries”, Electrochimica Acta, 1998, vol. 43, p. 1307]; nanocomposites of V2O5 with intercalated poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene), which were disclosed by Murugan et al. [A. V. Murugan, B. B. Kale, C.-W. Kwon, G. Campet and K. Vijayamohanan, “Synthesis and characterization of a new organo-inorganic poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) PEDOT/V2O5 nanocomposite by intercalation”, Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2001, vol. 11, p. 2470]. Also, improved discharge capacity for electrochemical lithium insertion and charge/discharge cycling ability, as compared with two-component nanocomposites, are observed for V2O5-based three-component hybrid host-guest nanocomposites: poly(2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole)-PAn-V2O5 nanocomposites, disclosed by Park et al. [U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,850]; PAn-polyethylene oxide (PEO)-V2O5, disclosed by Pokhodenko et al. [UA Pat. No. 16318].
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methodology for forming cathode materials for lithium battery applications.